CHAPTER TWO
Rosalie woke up the next morning with memories of the previous day still in her head. Her lips curved in a smile and she lifted a finger to trace its soft contours as she thought of the Alpha's lips pressed against them the previous night. She smiled, her mind replaying her passionate moment with Jacqueline.
She was going to win his heart, she decided. At least he felt something for her, he had made love to her, hadn't he? Rosalie was willing to bet that being with her was not the same for him as being with other girls. Humming a tune to herself, she swung her legs off the bed, ready to face the new day.
"Glad to see you smiling today Rosalie ." Clara, one of the oldest maids in the house said as she threw open the curtains.
Rosalie giggled. "And why shouldn't I be smiling today, especially after last night –"
"Last night!" The older woman's eyes scanned Rosalie , and then a knowing look came over them. "Did you last night?"
Rosalie nodded.
Clara let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad. So maybe you wouldn't feel so bad about the news I'm about to give you."
"What news?" Rosalie asked, her heart already beating quicker.
"The Alpha, he has chosen a mate. He is naming his mate before everyone today."
Rosalie was silent as she felt her heart shatter into a million pieces. Alpha Jacqueline had chosen another female as a mate, Alpha Jacqueline was going to belong to someone else forever.
Tears streamed down her eyes, and she did nothing to stop them. Her pleasurable moment with him the previous night seemed nothing but a mere mockery now like the Alpha had merely been taunting her. Showing her what could have been hers but would never be.
Rosalie struggled to still her erratic breathing, to take back the heart she had already given, but it was no use.
"I have always known you had a crush on Alpha Jacqueline, but I thought you were over him," Clara chirped nervously. "I thought at least now you've made love with another male, you'd forget." A thought occurred to her "oh no! Please don't tell me it was the Alpha you made love with the previous night."
Rosalie nodded, and then, she just couldn't sit still anymore. She dashed off the bed and out of her room.
"Where are you going?" Clara questioned frantically.
"To the ceremony ground. I want to look into his eyes while he says his vows to another female."
"It wasn't just any female." Clara started to say, but then Rosalie was already out of the house in her night dress. "It was his fated mate, he found his fated mate." She finished in the empty room.
Rosalie ran blindly, with the tears streaking down her face to the ceremony ground. She had known where it would hold. The Alpha had once told her that he would like his mating ceremony to be held there, and foolish, naïve she had hoped it would be to her.
Rosalie barged into the temple looking unkempt with her hair in disarray, bare feet, and still in her night clothes, at the exact time the presiding officer said "you may now kiss your mate."
She felt her heart wrench out of her chest as Alpha Jacqueline lowered his lips to that of the female in front of him, his new mate, and sealed the ceremony with a passionate kiss.
Those arms that had held her so passionately now held another female, his lips kissed another. Did he tease this female also, as he had teased her? Did his mouth mark this female as his? She gave a harsh laugh. Of course, this female was his, and he belonged to the female, he would never belong to her. Had he already chosen his mate the night he held her, the night he took her innocence from her?
The entire room full of people turned to stare at her, drawn by the sound of her crazed laughter. Their eyes shot daggers at her, and Rosalie knew what they must all be thinking; that she was mad.
Here she was attending a mating ceremony dressed in her night dress, barefoot and with her hair unkempt. Rosalie didn't blame them if they thought she was mad, but it was the look on Alpha Jacqueline's face that cut deep into her. His handsome face remained expressionless as his stormy grey eyes flickered across her features.
There was no recognition in his eyes, he looked as if he had never known her. All their cuddling late last night meant nothing to him, their passionate lovemaking. He was denying her before everyone without even uttering a single word. Rosalie turned and fled.
It took a while before she realized the Alpha was following behind, yet she didn't stop. She was afraid that if she turned to look at him she was going to breakdown, down and that after he was gone, she would be unable to pick the pieces of her life back together.
She continued running, out of the ceremony area and into the nearby woods. It occurred to her that Jacqueline was an Alpha, and so had ten times her strength and speed. If he wanted to catch up with her, he would have by now. It was when she rested her back against the nearest tree that he finally caught up.
She tried to look him in the eye and curse him for the pain and heartbreak that he had caused her. She had not asked to be followed last night, he had sought her out, had taken advantage of her vulnerability, made love to her and all the while having his chosen mate tucked safely away while he used her for momentary pleasure.
Rosalie did nothing to stop the tears that streamed down her eyes, hugging herself as she trembled violently, because even in her tears, her pain, the Alpha did nothing to comfort her.
"I tried to warn you last night." Alpha Jacqueline said simply when she was done crying.
"You tried!" Her eyes shot daggers at him.
"Yes. I told you I wasn't what you thought I was Rosalie, you of all people should know me by now, you should know that sex means nothing to me."
Rosalie fought her tears. "Sex means nothing to you." she repeated dumbly.
"Yes. You've seen me have sex with countless females. Why did you think you would be any different?"
"I don't know because I…because we…" She was unable to continue as tears once again streamed down her eyes. She shivered slightly. Her nightdress was not suitable at all for the biting cold but it was the cold that wrenched at her heart that hurt the most.
Rosalie trembled and let out a sigh of relief as the Alpha finally drew her into his arms. He held her against his chest with one hand, while the other stroked her back gently until her crying ceased and he stopped trembling, but his next words cut to her heart more than anything he had before.
"Rosalie." His voice was soft, gentle like a lover's caress, he would never be her lover. "I care about you, as a friend. We've been friends for so long, haven't we? But you see this; you and me, it is never going to happen, not again. So you can either accept my new mate as part of my life, my only true love, or you are going to have to stay away from me forever."
Rosalie pulled herself away from his embrace as her vulnerable green eyes searched his stormy grey. His expression seemed unreadable. She drew in a breath and wiped the remainder of her tears against the back of her hand. She was going to stay away from him forever.
And one day, just maybe, he would come looking for her, one day, he would want her the way she wanted him now. He would yearn for her, beg her to be a part of his life, beg her to choose him. Only then would he know her true pain, and then, she would have her last laugh.
Without another word, she turned and fled to her home. She had already made up her mind, she was leaving the pack. She was not going to stay behind, mooning over an Alpha that did not care about her, that thought nothing of breaking her heart. She was going to find a life elsewhere.